The Days of Our Ridazz.

NOTE: All timestamps are in the future because WE are in the future. The care takers of Midnight Ridazz.com reserves the right to remove, edit, move or delete anything for any reason. None of the opinions expressed on these boards represent the Midnight Ridazz nor can anyone purport to speak on behalf of Midnight Ridazz.

So, I parked my spare bike in the court yard of my building for about 3 days...I went to go check on it and found a note attached. Paraphrasing, the note said, "this is my bike, who gave it to you or did you steal it?" and then had a number and name attached and asked if I would call so "we could talk". so, the person seems pretty cool and just wants their bike back...

What do i do?
I figure I'll ask when it was stolen and see if that matches when I bought it (from the new/used bike shop), What else should I be prepared for?
Has this happened to anyone?

I'd give the guy a call, see if he can identify it, and then the both of you go back to the used bike shop to ask "WTF?" and see if you can get a refund in exchange for your not calling the police to report him for fencing stolen bikes.

he already identified it...he left the note on it...so anything that is unique he would have already seen.
I dont want to give away too much on the forum, but this is not a bike of someone would be able to describe such deets...
I dont want to give away when I bought it but I bought it when I first moved here and have since moved on to building my own bikes...

I agree with you that one should know all the weird scratches and such which is the type of person I have become.

So, anyway it was pretty inexpensive, but having an extra bike around is worth more than I payed for it considering my car is dead and I have become a bikefreak.

I guess what I'm asking is if he/she properly identifies when it was stolen is it douchy to ask for half of what I paid?

I guess the first thing is to go to the bike shop like JB said...But I like my bike shop and dont want to cause a raucous.

i'm not a douche so i will probably give it back if I think it makes sense...but im poor, too.

Sounds like it might be worth a $100 or so? It wouldn't hurt to go to the bike shop and ask them what they think and will do. After all, you didn't do anything wrong, yeah? The guy that's claiming it needs to come up with more than, "hey that's my bike". Is he offering say, a receipt as proof? Pics? What? And if you don't get things resolved the way you think is fair or right, threaten to go to the cops and get things resolved that way.

excellent questions. This is why I posted. Keep them coming...I would prefer to have an answer/question for anything that will come up..Like I said, Im not trying to screw anyone out of their bike..I just dont want to trip through this whole thing like a dumbass.

I was just thinking this week, as I was photographing my bikes, that it's a good idea for everybody to document their bikes for future refrence.
You never know when you may need the photo.
And, besides, don't we keep photos of the ones we love the most?

CONCLUSION:
I called the guy....he was like "Ya so when did yu get that bike"
I was like "when was it stolen?''
he was like, "uh like 3 weeks ago"
I was like, "oh it's surely not your bike"
he was like, "oh, ok."
i was like, "alright."
he was like, "alright.''
then there was this silence like..'should I just hang up'
so he did then I did and I ate Green cut & wax beans from Big Lots
and went on Pigeon Run.

I do have photos with meta data like two days after I bought the bike...does meta data hold up in court.? for future reference we should all be self issuing bike licenses like everyone above is recommending.

Anyone can look at a given bike and say it was theirs, unless they have proof then if you own it, it's yours.

I'm making a guess that you got this bike from the Bicycle Doctor. I could be wrong but I had a freind work there and he told me the guy buys bikes that he knows are stolen.

I have many people try and sell me bikes on a near daily basis and I have to be real careful not to buy a stolen one. I take thier drivers licence and record the date I took it in and keep a file on every bike I buy so if there is an issue, it can be resolved. I turn 95% of bikes offered to me away.

Like it was said, having a record of your bikes is a good idea if you ever hope to get them recovered. And keeping pecipts of your bikes, the date of purchace etc. Bike theft is way up so we need to be extra careful.